Va-Ta-Ga - Reel - Strannie ludi (2002)
«REEL» (Va-Ta-Ga) - is a group from Petrozavodsk, representing lively and bright music. Art-rock, avant-garde and world music are carefully balanced here. The group leader - Sasha Leonov plays hand-made folk, wind and string instruments, and sings Russian and Karelian songs, reconstructing early skomorokh traditions.
Two songs - male and female - are interwoven in one work, thus creating quite a new concept of Russian song. Combination of various genuinely Russian instruments, such as gudok, gusli, zhaleika, rozhok, kalyuka, and also Karelian jouhikko and sarvi (wooden horn wrapped in birch bark) with traditional instruments of other ethnic groups can evoke in a listener a lot of deep thoughts about the Art, and more general meditation on cliche-ridden way of thinking.